Oxbow Field Station is a Student-Made Box on Stilts Built from Reclaimed Materials

Nine undergraduate architecture students under the astute leadership of their Professor Eduard Epp designed this stunning, mostly reclaimed field station in Manitoba. The Oxbow Field Station was commissioned by the University of Manitoba's Department of Architecture for site meetings, fieldwork, and as a tool to measure on-site habitability for a future artist colony. Built near a floodplain on agricultural land owned by the university, the 14 square foot building is comprised in part of materials salvaged from the base of an abandoned building and includes a rooftop viewing deck that extends the building's height to 20 feet. All of this constructed by the students, for the students, in just three months.

80% of the building materials were salvaged and reused, including the concrete, wood, steel, plastic, and glass. In addition to these, the remaining 20% of new materials were sourced either locally or from the region, keeping the building’s overall carbon footprint decidedly low. Existing wood trellis frames were disassembled, milled and repurposed as the ladder wall and building envelope.

Salvaged cottage decking was used to build both the interior floor and the rooftop observation deck, and 200 salvaged fluorescent light covers make up the exterior cladding, creating a lovely dappled light effect. Windows originally constructed in 1910 were also reused. New materials were really only employed for the post and beam construction. And when the nearby Red river floods? A handy canoe will allow access to the studio.